Welcome

The Iris City Chiropractic Center was founded on 23 October 95 by Robert A. Hayden, DC, PhD. While primarily a chiropractic clinic, the center also offers massage therapy, custom orthotics, and bone density testing. The occupational health portion of the practice serves many employers with DOT and pre-employment physicals, a full range of drug and alcohol testing, and random drug testing to facilitate compliance with the Drug-Free Workplace initiative of the Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Hayden began work in health care as a Cardiovascular Clinical Nurse Specialist, but also was an Executive Director of a state association, continuing education consultant, and registered lobbyist while in professional nursing. He earned a PhD from the University of Mississippi while enrolled at Life University, from which he graduated in 1995. He specializes in Cox Flexion Distraction/Disc Decompression technique.

Dr. Hayden is an active member of the American Chiropractic Association. He serves as a member of the Media Team, through which he is a spokesman for the Association to television, radio, and printed media.

Dr. Hayden is the immediate past president of the Georgia Chiropractic Association. He is a current member of the Executive Committee and was recognized as the 2006-2007 Chiropractor of the Year. He was inducted in 2009 as a Fellow of the International College of Chiropractic, which is the highest international honor the chiropractic profession has to offer.

In February, 2012, he was honored with a Presidential Leadership Award by Dr. Keith Overland, President of the American Chiropractic Association, for his work as the ACA Delegate from Georgia.

Educational News Blog

We recommend educating yourself as much as possible about your health and wellness. Here are a few articles written by Robert A. Hayden, DC, PhD, FICC. But by all means continue your education beyond what you find here.

Have you noticed your skin bruising easily, or even tearing like tissue paper? This is certainly an aesthetic issue, but it may also be frightening. We need to understand what is happening to our skin as it ages to better care for ourselves.

Our skin is our largest and most obvious organ. It is exposed to the environment every day with ultraviolet light, abrasion, sharp objects, biohazards, and the drying effect of wind. It has a marvelous ability to heal and repair itself throughout our lives.

Underneath our skin is a layer of fat tissue. Fat does a number of things for us. It stores energy. It acts as connective tissue that anchors your skin to the subcutaneous layers below. It insulates the body from radical changes in temperature in the environment. It gives shape to our bodies that is genetically determined and heavily influenced by hormones. It even acts as a cushion when you fall or bump a piece of furniture.

As we “mature,” this fat layer gets thinner and may virtually disappear. This results in the skin even looking almost transparent sometimes and losing its resilience and resistance to stretching. It gets fragile and subject to tearing with shearing force. It will bruise easily because the loss of the fat layer exposes blood vessels to stretching and tearing as well. The slightest incidental trauma may produce many shades of red, blue, and purple under the skin. Many of my senior patients react in horror as they walk across the room and brush of forearm accidentally against a door facing or the edge of a sofa. Senior skin tears like wet toilet tissue in a jagged, frightening wound.

It is one of the most common reasons for missed work and the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office.

“While there are numerous causes for back pain, one of the most common in my experience is muscle strain,” Robert A. Hayden, DC, PhD, FICC, from the Iris City Chiropractic Center, says. “Sometimes this is related to lifting things that are too heavy or lifting at the wrong angle, lifting too quickly, or lifting with poor body mechanics.”

The #2 most prescribed drug is Crestor with 21.4 million active users representing $5.9 billion in sales. This is only one of the “statin” drugs that reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. As with all pharmaceuticals, there is potential danger associated with the use of the statin drugs. With so many people taking these drugs to reduce cholesterol, and thereby hopefully reduce the risk of heart disease, there are some things the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants you to know.

The most recent advisory is aimed at both consumers and health professionals. First, it is no longer considered necessary to monitor the liver enzymes (a blood study) because these lab tests have not been found to be effective in predicting or preventing the occurrences of serious liver injury associated with statin use. This does not suggest you will not have liver damage. It says the blood studies are not useful in predicting it.

Second, cognitive impairment, manifest as memory loss, forgetfulness, and confusion have been reported by some statin users. I know of someone who suddenly realized that though he recognized his wife and daughter, he had no idea where he was, what year or month it was, etc. He was hospitalized under suspicion of having a stroke. His memory returned in about 30 hours. No neurological abnormalities were evident, but he was a statin user.

I look for topics in current events, and sleep apnea is a recurring theme in the news nowadays. It is blamed for a long list of personal and societal problems. As research accumulates, it is being taken more seriously.

Sleep apnea is the term for a condition in which one either ceases breathing transiently or has very shallow breathing while asleep. These pauses may last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes and may occur up to 30 times in an hour. It is frequently associated with loud snoring or choking sounds, so anyone trying to sleep around this person will also have sleep disturbances. Imagine for a moment how rested one would feel after wrestling all night just to breathe.

This condition often goes unrecognized because it does not have a blood test or x-ray that identifies it. Many times a patient does not realize they have the condition. The only know that their chronically fatigued and are falling asleep in the middle of the day. If a patient calls this to the attention of a healthcare provider who is listening, there will be some probing questions to establish a history that contains the fingerprints of sleep apnea.

Henry Ford once told consumers that they could have one of his cars in any color they wanted, as long as it was black. This week your car of whatever color is likely yellow.

Yes, the pollen is out. That yellow powdery evidence of botanical reproduction is pervasive and pesky. If you walk outside, your clothes will be painted with it. You will track it into your home on your shoes. It will sneak into the inner sanctum of your home on the fur of your beloved pets. It will find its way into your nose and sinuses where it will wreak havoc. It is the number two complaint of everyone I have seen today, second only to universal dissatisfaction with leading presidential candidates of both parties. Frankly, both complaints will make one cry.

Tens of millions of Americans will suffer allergic responses in the form of rhinitis (runny nose), laryngitis, bronchitis, sinusitis, or asthma. It will get worse before it gets better because the pollen count is not even at its peak yet. It is just beginning. As I write this, here in Griffin the primary offender is tree pollen, followed by ragweed, mold, and grass.

We are not the hardy species we were when pioneers crossed this continent on foot or on horseback without roads, compass, or Holiday Inn Express. Perhaps it is related to our diet, our nice cars and SUVs that keep us from walking, or the climate controlled environment in which we live. Whatever the cause, we are getting soft as a race. Even our bones are getting soft.

Ten million Americans have osteoporosis. 80% of these are women who suffer debilitating and life-threatening fractures. Even worse, the proportion of people with this condition continues to expand. Another 34 million have low bone mass and are headed to osteoporosis unless something changes. By 2025, the cost of osteoporosis – related fractures is estimated to be around $25.3 billion.

Reasons for the trend are still being researched. Instead of playing outside, many children today are sitting in front of televisions, computers, or other electronic toys, exercising only their fingers. Not too long ago I saw a three-year-old exhibiting blinding eye to hand coordination on an iPad. While this was a stunning display of accelerated development, I wondered if this child will ever go out and play soccer or ride a bicycle. Isn’t that old-fashioned of me?